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President Joe Biden's administration has officially scrapped its unfinished rules for broad student-loan forgiveness.
The Education Department posted notices to withdraw its plans to cancel student debt for over 38 million borrowers. The withdrawal notices were for two of the department's unfinished debt-relief rules. The first rule was Biden's Plan B for broader debt relief after the Supreme Court struck his first plan down in summer 2023. The second rule was a proposal to provide relief to borrowers facing financial hardship.
In the notices to withdraw the unfinished rules, the Education Department said it is focused on helping student-loan borrowers manage the remaining elements of the return to repayment that began last year following the pandemic pause.
The department said that withdrawing these regulations will give future stakeholders the flexibility to craft new forms of relief, especially with the uncertainty the incoming administration brings. Trump has previously criticized broad relief and is unlikely to continue Biden's efforts.
The department also said that the withdrawal of these rules is not a result of the questions surrounding their legality, saying that it believes the relief "is authorized by the Secretary's longstanding and existing authority" under the Higher Education Act.
Biden's Plan B for student-loan forgiveness would have benefited over 30 million borrowers. It proposed full or partial relief for categories including borrowers with unpaid interest and those who have made at least 20 years of payments. While the rule was never finalized, a group of GOP-led states filed a lawsuit in September to block its implementation.
Meanwhile, the Education Department proposed a separate rule in October to provide relief to 8 million borrowers facing financial hardship. Those categories would have included borrowers facing challenges with childcare or medical expenses.
The Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider on the withdrawal of the plans.
Biden is still pursuing other avenues for debt relief before his term is up. On Friday, his administration announced an additional $4.28 billion in debt relief for 54,900 borrowers in Public Service Loan Forgiveness — a result of ongoing improvements to the program. Despite not being able to pass broad relief, Biden, over the course of his term, has provided relief to nearly 5 million borrowers through changes to various programs.
Some Republican lawmakers lauded the withdrawal of the plans. Sen. Bill Cassidy, the top Republican on the Senate education committee, said in a Friday statement that Biden's "student loan schemes were always a lie."
Meanwhile, some advocates criticized the GOP-led challenges to Biden's relief efforts. Persis Yu, the deputy executive director of the advocacy group Student Borrower Protection Center, said in a statement that Biden's plans "would have freed millions from the crushing weight of the student debt crisis and unlocked economic mobility for millions more workers and families."
"We are deeply grateful to President Biden for the work he did to fight for the 40 million borrowers trapped in student debt," Yu said.
